In the midst of living in 19 countries in one year, 25-year-old Jessica Dahl found herself in Thailand’s Red Light District having conversations with young girls and women trapped in the sex trafficking trade.

“That stole my heart and I had to do something about it,” Dahl said of her experience during the World Race trip with Adventures in Mission.

It was because of this work and her drive to do more that Dahl was nominated and recently won the Young Careerist title from the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation at a state conference.

Dahl was among three participants in the competition who were judged on written biographical information, personal interviews, group interaction, a four-minute speech and leadership qualities.

“Business and Professional Women’s Foundation supports women both personally, professionally and politically,” said Susan Lipston, the state president of Business and Professional Women in Washington. “And Jessica was able to rise to the occasion.”

Prior to taking that life-changing trip, the Todd Beamer High School/Highline College Running Start graduate went straight to beauty school and held a year-long apprenticeship at the Hair Lounge in Federal Way, which she describes as one of the most “intensive years” of her life.

“Just very much in the way of leadership and mentoring and taking everything that you learned from school and following the absolute best,” she said, noting that she still works there today as well as at Salon Matarazzo in Bellevue.

But it was while she was working at one of the top hair salons in Los Angles and teaching “crazy boot camps out on the beach” when she realized she was trying to get to the top of something.

Not knowing quite what that was, Dahl gathered her backpack, tent and shears to “get outside of your [sic] own box and experience other lives.”

From there, the World Race trip took her to places many can only imagine.

“Sometimes I was working with an orphanage, sometimes we were on top of a mountain 45 minutes away from anything social,” she said. “Sometimes it was a completly flooded place and you’re helping build a church or you’re working in a small village for trafficking and trying to bring awareness to families.”

Each person on the trip utilized their own skills and Dahl’s was cutting hair and promoting health.

After her encounter with prostitutes in Thailand, Dahl felt she had to do something more.

She joined the board of directors for an organization called Justice and Soul Foundation. The foundation has a beauty school in Cambodia and enlists volunteers to travel all over the world. And for two months last October, Dahl spent her time helping others at the beauty school.

“It reminds you, you have a gift and how you can use it beyond yourself. So for me, it was one of my biggest turning points to realize that I don’t just work in a hair salon to work in a hair salon,” she said. “I don’t just do hair to do hair. It goes way beyond that and I want to share that with everyone.”

Dahl said so many women are taught to believe if they look good on the outside and their “genitals are intact” then that’s all that matters.

“And that’s not OK,” she said. “My outreach is to broaden the minds of people in these beauty industries to use their gift to do things like help those that would be less fortunate and not able to on their own.”

And if Dahl wasn’t busy enough, to promote this awareness of using your gift to help others, she and another hair stylist are in the process of creating a nonprofit.

Although the name of the nonprofit is still in the works, their vision is very clear.

The two hope to create a large event called Beyond the Cut. With the help of many volunteer hairstylists, Beyond the Cut will provide as many free haircuts to those in need as possible in one day and one location.

“We’re using our gift, let’s pay it forward and let’s give without trying to receive anything back,” she said. “There’s a lot of people that would never ever be able to have somebody just offer an open hand or to sit and have a conversation or just remind them that they have value and worth.”

Dahl was inspired to create Beyond the Cut after giving a rundown, tired and unhappy woman a haircut on a stump one day.

“We didn’t speak the same language but we could communicate,” Dahl said. “And so, I had my shears with me and I basically asked, ‘Can I cut your hair?”

Within 20 minutes, Dahl proclaimed the woman’s life had changed in her hands.

“The rest of the month she was all giddy, throwing her hair around and just a completely different person, so for me, that changed everything.”

Although the date is subject to change based on location availability, the Beyond the Cut event is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 4. Hairstylists interested in volunteering should contact Dahl at jessdahl24@gmail.com.

“Beyond the Cut is focused on everyone,” she said. “Some people might not want to help with sex trafficking. We want to open it up to where all people are welcome.”

Dahl is also involved in an organization called Real Escape from the Sex Trade, or REST.

Now, Dahl looks forward to stepping into other leadership roles, being mentored by the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation and picking another young careerist for next year’s state competition.

“I think that being a leader, you have to be willing to be mentored and mentor other people,” she said. “The young careerist is somebody that is driven and may already be doing something but … I can be mentored, I can go to people that can help me or teach me how to present in front of people or gain other insights and just be with other women who are serving their community. It’s a really neat and exciting thing to be a part of.”

For more information on the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation, visit bpwfoundation.org.